Mustangdemon67

so a friend of mine gave me a cam he had laying around. its a 520 lift, not sure of duration, roller cam for my 5.0. (its carbed by the way)

here is my dilema, i still have stock 5.0 heads and just an eldelbrock performer intake. the only thing that i would get to change along with the cam is maybe new vavle springs and some rockers.

now when talking to some people about this, the most common response ive got is

A larger cam will generally shift the power band of an engine upwards. This is fine if your engine is set up to make higher rpm power but the stock heads and intake are done making power right around 5000 rpm, so it doesn't do any good installing a cam that makes peak power at 4700.

i guess my question is should i just wait till i pick up some new heads before installing this bigger cam? or will i see some improvement by installing it now anyway?

droptop302

That much lift needs fly cut pistons....

kweb288

i thought you could run that or a little more... its just you need to chekc the clearance and sometimes you will need to notch your pistons????
thats just what i thought

xtturbo

i went rom a stock cam to an E cam....do i need to check it?...lift is .498

mjr46

lift has nothing to do with having to flycut the pistons[&:]...ptv is a result of valve timing events occuring.....max lift does not neccessarily occur at tdc

mjr46

you should always check for ptv with cam swaps and to do such you need to know how to properly set up valvetrain and have a set of converted lifters to check ptv

lxman1

My E303 fit fine and I gained power from 2500 to 6000 with stock E7 heads.
I also have a 70MM TB, 70MM Cobra MAF and an Explorer GT40 style intake.

Slo5oh

Why would you ever consider installing a cam you dont know all the specs on? Im surprised people install cams when they only have @50 specs. Too many people with cams and no knowledge. Go measure it!!!

Mustangdemon67

i have all the info, i was just asking if i should bother installing a bigger cam when im still using stock heads

Slo5oh

heads and cams are what makes power. If you want more power thats what you change. You match your cam to your heads, rarely the other way arround. What are all the specs on the cam? You dont have to change your heads, but if the cam is very agressive it would probably be a good idea because the stock heads dont have that great of flow.